Even the Greatest Hero Falls
by Terion
Summary: Same verse as Brothers in the Night and A Hundred-Thousand Never Agains. Alistair takes on Loghain in the duel at the Landsmeet. This is that scene from the Hero of River Dane's point of view.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of the _Dragon Age_ universe but my games and strategy guides. This is just me making a mess in the sandbox.

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><p>His knees hit the floor of the Landsmeet chamber seconds before his fingers go limp and his shield slides from his grasp. There's a moment where his mind screams <em>get up<em> but his body says _we're too old for this_ and he can't find the strength to move except to drag his helmet off.

Loghain seriously thought he could beat the boy, having barely remembered catching a glimpse of the too-familiar face at Ostagar. He'd been trailing along at Duncan's heels like a lost puppy since the Wardens arrival and then escorting the Cousland girl around days later. There had been a softness about him there, something he shared with Cailan, and the boy's too easy joking demeanor had him playing him off as nothing to worry about.

The man he'd just fought – just _lost_ to – is nothing like that boy. And all he can think is that _this_ is the son Maric should have had in Cailan.

A year of fighting Maker only knows what while he mostly sat in Denerim and tried to hold things together has hardened the boy that was. His sword never hesitated in its strikes and Loghain's head still rings from where the Grey Warden shield clashed against his helmet earlier. Even before the fight started, he could tell there was something _different_ about the boy as he stood next to the Cousland girl. There was something harder in his face, the lines drawn starker and hazel eyes gleaming in a way that said _I have seen, fought, and killed things that would chill your soul._

He was a fool to think he could win.

Coughing, Loghain lifts his head to look up at Alistair, meeting that harsh gaze without pause. And suddenly he isn't in the Landsmeet chamber but in Orlesian occupied Ferelden, in the King's office, in the Circle Tower, in the Deep Roads, and so many other places. In that instant the boy is replaced with _Maric_ and he can't help but feel his old friend's disappointment in every bone.

_Why?_ the shade seems to ask and he can't find an answer. A year later he isn't even sure _what_ his reasons for not coming at the lightning of the beacon even were.

And there is nothing he can say that will make betraying his king, his son-in-law, his friend's _flesh-and-blood_, _Rowan's_ _son_ right.

"No!" screams out his daughter's voice then and Loghain realizes that Alistair has his sword raised, ready to bring down in a two-handed blow that will take off his head. Part of him wants to rise and comfort her, another wants to grab his sword up from where it's fallen to defend himself, and the other just wants everything to be _over_. He barely hears the other Warden, the one Rendon Howe (Maker does he regret dealing with that _man_) locked in his dungeon, suggest to make _him_ a Warden.

What he _does_ hear all too clearly is Alistair's angry growl and Karre Cousland's harsh little intake of breath before she spits out the word, "_Never._"

Anora is shouting now, screaming that they _cannot_ kill one of Ferelden's greatest heroes, and the girl – the little _spritely_ thing who doesn't look like she could wield the sword and dagger she wears slung across her back – shouts her down by not shouting at all.

"I will admit that Loghain Mac Tir is one of our greatest heroes," are the girl's first words and Loghain can't help but admire her. She is bad-tempered, crude, and _nothing_ of what a girl of her breeding should be…but she has all of Bryce's ability to _speak_ and have people _listen_. It's no wonder that she has gained what allies he knows about and more. "We, however, cannot forget what he has done to Ferelden in this past year. I was at Ostagar, one of the very ones sent to light the beacon that would give this man the signal to attack."

The girl's eyes are on _him_ now and he can feel them burn with the same intensity as the boy's.

"He never came," she continues, accusation snarling underneath her calm tone. "No, instead he turned and _left_. Hundreds of brave men and women died because of his actions. The Commander of the Grey, Duncan, died. Our own _king_, Cailan Theirin, died."

There is _silence_ in the room for the first time as she stalks towards him with her teeth bared in a snarl and Loghain's mind can't help but compare her to a mabari. As she moves to circle the tableau struck by him and Alistair (who _still_ has his sword patiently raised), she keeps talking, laying out his crimes _again_ for all to hear.

Hmph, as if he does not know all his crimes well enough.

"In his actions since, Teyrn Loghain has attacked the men and women of the Bannorn. He blackmailed a mage into _poisoning_ Arl Eamon. _Tevinter slavers_ were allowed into the Denerim alienage and given free reign."

The girl paused and stops in front of him, fingers twitching as if she wants to gut him herself and not give the boy the satisfaction.

"Most damningly, he allowed Arl Howe to _decimate_ the teyrnir of Highever as well as to claim the title of Teyrn and Arl of Denerim while turning a blind eye to his actions against the people he swears he cares most about."

She spun towards the Warden then, violence in every line. "I will _never_ call him a brother-in-arms after what he has done, Riordan." Then she looked towards Anora and Loghain saw his daughter's hopes dashed on words as sharp as the sword still hovering above his head. "Being a hero of the Rebellion does _not_ erase that he started a civil war with his actions."

And he smiles at his daughter, trying to reassure her but failing miserably from the tears that he can see welling in her eyes.

There is more talking around him that he doesn't quite comprehend and then the girl nods to Alistair. Loghain lifts his gaze to the boy again and he has but one thought as he watches the hazel gaze harden, the armored hands tightening around the hilt of the blade as the boy hisses, "For Duncan and my _brother_."

_Perhaps it is best I die at the hand of a boy you would have been proud to claim as yours, Maric._

Then the sword swings downward and he thinks Anora _screams_ but there's only a moment of pain before the darkness falls blessedly fast.


End file.
